He Kissed His Muse. I Wrote Every Song. novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Wig
By four o'clock the woman in the wig was on the arena steps, with two cameras, a lawyer, and a crowd of reporters.
She wore the same sunglasses and the same dark hair as on the screen, and she smiled at every lens.
"I've stayed in the shadows for years," she said, "because the songs mattered more than my name."
I stood behind the glass doors with Colt, the twins, and the drummer.
"She's good," Colt said under his breath.
"She's paid," I said.
Birdie pressed her nose to the glass.
"Her hair is fake," she whispered. "I can see the glue."
"Birdie."
"I'm just saying it. It's evidence."
The drummer took a battered cassette player out of his gig bag and held it up.
"Ma'am," he said. "Say the word."
I looked at Colt.
He opened the door.
We walked out into the white light of the cameras together, with Gus on his hip and Birdie holding my hand.
The reporters swung round, and the woman in the wig stopped smiling.
"Mr. Hargis," someone shouted. "Is this your Songbird?"
"No," Colt said.
The steps went quiet.
"That's a lie," the lawyer said at once. "My client holds the registered rights..."
"Your client holds a piece of paper," I said. "I hold the songs."
I turned to the woman in the wig and spoke kindly.
"What was the first one you wrote?"
"I don't discuss my process," she said.
"There's a cassette," I said. "It's the first song Songbird ever recorded. It's never been released. Would you please sing the chorus of it for these people?"
Her lips parted, and nothing came out.
The drummer pressed the button.
The tape hissed.
Then a young woman's voice came out of the tiny speaker, thin and a little flat, in a kitchen with a refrigerator humming behind it.
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